Xavi tells a story about a 16-year-old Leo Messi’s first training session – and it’s amazing

Xavi Hernandez has recalled being “blown away” by a 16-year-old Lionel Messi during his first training session for the Barcelona.

In an interview with AS, the former Barca midfielder spoke about the five time Ballon d’Or winner with passion, while speaking when he “couldn’t believe his eyes” when Messi went one-on-one against Lillian Thuram and Carles Puyol.

They may have been the best defenders in world football at the time, but Xavi said that Messi had no fear, taking the pair on in his first session:

“They’d already told me about this kid, I’d been warned that there was this young Argentinean kid coming through who was very good.” Xavi said.

“They’d even mentioned his name but I’d forgotten. But then, when I saw him in training aged just 16 I could see exactly what they were on about. There was a training drill we used to do in which players are one-on-one against [Lillian] Thuram, and [Carles] Puyol

“I saw Messi take on those two and couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought: ‘Blimey, here this kid who’s only 16 years old, dodging past professional defenders, internationals. Even then you could tell that he was different. It’s obvious that he has an innate talent when he is one-against-one, he’s fast, he scores goals, he passes, shoots. He’s amazing”

Former Barcelona midfielder Xavi also revealed what pisses Messi off the most during an interview via Spanish outlet SPORT.

“Barcelona and the Argentine national team cannot afford to allow 10 minutes to pass in a game without Leo Messi touching the ball. Leo Messi has to be involved in the game. He has to be where things are happening, where the ball is. In addition, he’s going to get pissed off.

“If he doesn’t touch the ball for five minutes, you have to bring him to where the ball is. He has to participate in the play”.